Quick Pizza at Home

Happy New Year everyone! We hope you had a great holiday season. We partied, made over the top food and ran around until we dropped. Now it’s time to get back to reality, work and our future endeavors. That being said, I would like to make some quick meals that don’t lack on flavor. It’s pizza time!

Pizza is one of those wonder meals that can go from high to low, from the fast takeout place to something magical that satisfies all your taste cravings. When we moved out of the city, the first thing we learned about our location is no one will deliver food (crying inside). While we always loved cooking up a storm, we also got delivery like pros after long work days. The world was our delivery oyster and we pretty much had our choice of diverse cuisine options at our finger tips. One place was so fast, we used to joke that they made it on the bike ride over. Now, that is not our reality. If we want take out, WE have to go get it. No more immediate gratification.

One way we got over the dear loss of delivery was to start making our own pizzas. True confession: we buy the dough most of the time and freeze it. There are wonderful recipes out there for dough, but we wanted something quick with an immediate gratification. I can now make a pizza in about 20 to 25 minutes. Most of the time it’s waiting for the oven to heat up. Here are two recipes, one savory and one sweet, that we are really into at the moment.

Sweet Peach, Pesto and Prosciutto Pizza

Kitchen tools needed

We recommend using a cast iron pizza pan like this one from Lodge. It was quick to use and we didn’t have to leave it to cool as long as the pizza stone. It also works on the grill.

Ingredients

Store bought or pre-made pizza dough

1 1/2 cups baby arugula

2 ripe peaches cut into thin quarters

4 slices or prosciutto torn into strips

1/4 cup pesto

3/4 cup ricotta

3 tbsp of olive oil

flour for dusting the surface and dough

Directions

Let the dough sit a room temp for at least 5 to 10 minutes.

Place the cast iron pizza pan in the oven and pre-heat to 450º.

Dust your surface and rolling pin with flour.

Roll out the dough to roughly an inch larger than the pan, being careful not to get to thin in any one spot.

Remove the pan from the oven and add 1 tbsp of olive to the surface. Using a folded paper towel with tongs, quickly spread the oil evenly around the surface.

While the pan is still hot, place the dough on. The dough will shrink up, but try to make sure it’s pulled to the edge all around. Be careful the pan will be extremely hot.

Add the pesto sauce to the pizza dough slightly smoothing and staying about an inch from the edge.

Add the toppings to the pizza dough starting with the ricotta, peaches, and finishing with the prosciutto.

Sprinkle the top with the remaining tbsp of olive oil.

Bake in the oven for 6 minutes then add the baby arugula to the top. Continue to bake for 6 to 8 minutes until the crust looks golden.

Remove the pizza from the pan to rest for 2 to 3 minutes while the cheese sets up. Enjoy!

Rolling Out The Dough

Rolling out the dough was intimidating to me at first. I always used to make Susan do it, until one day when she was busy and just said NO (lovingly). I rolled up my sleeves got out my dough and flour and made a huge mess. It wasn’t pretty, but pizza is really forgiving. By the second time I had it down pretty good.

Here are my tips:

Make sure you have flour on the surface a bit bigger than the pizza will be

Flour your hands and rolling pin so it doesn’t stick

add a little flour on the surface of the dough and form into a ball shape

Roll the dough from the center out to get that round shape

Savory Herb, Ricotta, Cherry Tomato and Red Onion Pizza

Kitchen tools needed

We recommend using a cast iron pizza pan like this one from Lodge. It was quick to use and we didn’t have to leave it to cool as long as the pizza stone. It also works on the grill.

Ingredients

Store bought or pre-made pizza dough

1 medium red onion cut into small round slices

1 pint of cherry tomatoes cut in slices

2 sprigs of fresh oregano

Small handful of basil leaves

3 tbsp of olive oil

1 ball of fresh mozzarella

1/2 cup of store bought marinara or other thick sauce

flour for dusting the surface and dough

Alternatively you can use a pizza stone or sheet pan. Caution with the sheet pan is that the pizza sometimes doesn’t get crispy enough in the center with a lot of toppings.

Directions

Let the dough sit a room temp for at least 5 to10 minutes

Place the cast iron pizza pan in the oven and pre-heat to 450º.

In a pan with 1 tbsp of olive oil, sauté onion until slightly caramelized, then set aside to cool.

Dust your surface and rolling pin with flour.

Roll out the dough to roughly an inch larger than the pan, being careful not to get to thin in any one spot.

Remove the pan from the oven and add 1 tbsp of olive to the surface. Using a folded paper towel with tongs, quickly spread the oil evenly around the surface.

While the pan is still hot, place the dough on. The dough will shrink up, but try to make sure it’s pulled to the edge all around. Be careful the pan will be extremely hot.

Add the marinara sauce to the pizza dough slightly smoothing and staying about an inch from the edge.

Add the rest of the toppings to the pizza dough starting with the ricotta, onions, tomatoes and finishing with the herbs.

Sprinkle the top with the remaining tbsp of olive oil.

Bake in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes until the crust looks golden.

Remove the pizza from the pan to rest for 2 to 3 minutes while the cheese sets up. Enjoy!